Draft Diaries is back for a third year, introducing Bond University's young gun Ava Usher and rising Dandenong Stingrays star Mizuki Brothwell to the wider footy world. Both players are eligible for the Telstra AFLW Draft in December, with Usher tied to Gold Coast through its club academy. 

This is Brothwell's first check-in for the year, and you can catch up with Usher here.

MIZUKI Brothwell first picked up a footy in earnest in 2023.

Playing alongside identical twin sister Nalu, the pair were quickly elevated to the Dandenong Stingrays after just one season of local footy with Balnarring, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.

This year – with just two seasons under her belt – rebounding defender Mizuki is in the Marsh AFLW national academy, while forward Nalu has been one of the Stingrays' top performers in their opening month.

"We pretty much do everything together – we started footy together, we played netball together, we've done everything. Having her there, working together, it just gives us more motivation to keep training and do all our stuff together," Brothwell said.

"It's just helpful having someone always there to help each other up when we're down or haven't had a good day. We're always motivating and praising each other, telling each other we're doing great and stuff, it's really good to have her there and help me out.

"Me and Nalu play at opposite ends of the footy field, I'm in the backline, she's in the forward line. I feel like as soon as I get the ball, I'm looking for her, it's so great when we get a little connection, like I hit her up and she gets a goal."

Brothwell's mum, Maki, is Japanese, but she has quickly fallen in love with the Australian game.

"I don't think, before she came to Australia, she knew anything about footy. That was a while ago, and now she's joined with my dad, both of them love footy now," Brothwell said.

"Mum is a major fan, you'll hear her screaming on the boundary. At training, she's always helping kick the footy back afterwards while we're doing set shots, she loves it. 

"She might even love it more than me, honestly, she loves it so much. She's crazy about it – when we're watching footy at home, she's screaming, it's so funny watching her. But I love it, and how much she loves it."

An Essendon supporter, Brothwell looks up to fellow intercepting back Maddi Gay, as well as Sam Durham, admiring his marking ability and run-and-carry game. 

As her own game has quickly developed following the late switch from rep-level netball, she's found herself drawn to those who play in a similar style.

"Adjusting into footy, I don't think the skills came fully naturally to me. Obviously, playing netball and [knowing] how to catch, [marking] was all right, but the coaches really helped me with my fundamentals, trying to get them on point," Brothwell said.

"I'm always practicing kicking still, and handballing and stuff, and I definitely still have lots to improve on. The backline coach especially at the Stingrays, Leah (Olsen), she's helped me so much with back craft, knowing how to intercept, reading the ball better. 

"She's helped me a lot, and so has Josh (Moore, former head coach who has recently joined Essendon), they both focused a lot on just my fundamentals and making sure they're on point. Them also believing in my speed and running off half-back, I think that's helped a lot."

A year 12 student at Padua College, Brothwell's got one eye on December's draft, but knows there's a fair bit of work to be done before then. 

It's about 50km to drive to the Stingrays' Dandenong base, with Mizuki often content to let Nalu rack up her supervised driving hours. She's got her own pre-match routine to focus on – "depressing" music until the final few minutes of the trip to keep her as calm as possible, then a blast of rapper Macklemore for a last little pump-up.

"My footy goals for this year are just to be consistent, play each game as best I can, and do well. Obviously at the end of the year, my dream is to get drafted, but working hard throughout the year is what I really want to do well and help my teammates as well, play a good team game," Brothwell said.

"The skills I mainly want to focus on are mainly my pressure, I feel like that's always got room for improvement for me. My endurance as well – I run throughout a game pretty well, but sometimes I get pretty tired and hopefully I'm still trying to improve on that."